International Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetics Consortium (IIBDGC)

In recent years the IIBDGC has focused on collecting very large datasets from a diverse set of countries via world-wide
collaboration. In addition to enabling the discovery of all these genes, we also try to dig a little deeper into what these
associations actually mean. Our latest paper takes this further than we ever have before, involving analysts from a dozen
research groups and using the latest statistical techniques to look for patterns across the 163 regions.

The combination of all this information allowed us make new statements about IBD risk that no single locus can tell us: IBD
is not just genetically similar to other diseases of immunity, but is particularly closely related to certain inflammatory
disease such as psoriasis. IBD risk is not only related to changes in the immune system, it is related to a particular
subset of immune cells and signals. Not only is IBD risk related to susceptibility to bacterial infection, it is remarkably
strongly connected with susceptibility to the family of bacteria that includes leprosy and TB.

In contrast to just five years ago, discovering genes for disease is no longer the hard part. Future studies, including
those of the IIBDGC, will have to focus not just on discovering new associations, but also on turning those associations
into new biological understanding.

Open invitation

We extend an open invitation to any group that wishes to join our consortium. We suggest as a minimum that interested
groups have high quality genomic DNA and phenotypic information from 500 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IBD and 500
population-matched healthy controls. Of course, if you have already generated genome-wide data on these individuals that
would be welcome. If you are interested in joining the consortium please contact enquiries@ibdgenetics.org.